The British are coming! The British are coming!

Back in April Nigel, Steve, and I started the solve of the Mega Mansion.  I promised I wouldn't touch it again until they came back.  At IPP we were all chatting one night and decided they would come over in October to finish it off.  This of course put a silly song in my head...My favorite line of which is "And the shot heard 'round the world was the start of the Revolution."  followed closely by "Even though we lost, it was quite a thrill,The rebel Colonel Prescott proved he was wise; Outnumbered and low on ammunition As the British stormed his position He said, "Hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"  (I must have watched too much saturday morning tv as a kid.  No wonder we don't own one now.)  Well, this weekend was the start of a new type of revolution.  

George and I met Steve at the airport and we headed off to Assisi for the day.  We had a bit of sightseeing and a great pizza for lunch.  

Once we finished, we headed over to Leroy Merlin to pick up some odds and ends and a outdoor furniture set for the tower.  Sadly, it didn't fit in the car so, after we headed back to the airport so Steve could pick up his car we returned and stuck it in the back.  

He and George headed home while I went on and did some more shopping.  We had guests coming and I didn't want to run out of food.  

We spent a good few days opening puzzles and laughing.  Steve got a tour of the updated Puzzle Palace,

and on Friday night he went to the airport to pick up the guys from the UK.  He had 4 of them in the car for the drive back.  I'm sure it was a laugh a minute on the return home.  In the mean time Jan Zoon and his wife arrived for the weekend.  We had a nice lasagna, and I made another for the guys to have when they got back from the airport.  

I dutifully took them to the Palace to pick their rooms, and I think Allard was the only sane one.  He chose the half empty Lego room.  I'm sure he was the only one to get any sleep over the weekend.  Ali was in the Rubik's room and Peter chose  the IPP room. Louis was in the Apartment for the weekend and Steve was in the 2nd floor wood room.  The upper floor was filled with Jan and Hans.  

After feeding the lads, I left them to it and went to bed.  The next morning We had a bit of puzzling fun.  Mostly trying to reassemble a bit of The Notre Dame puzzle that had come undone.  Jan's wife and I headed off for Perugia to purchase a cd player so we could read the disk they had given us of the puzzle.  When we returned with it, George put it in the machine and was able to read some of it, but not all.  Steve couldn't read any of it and so he sent it off to his machine in the UK to read.  Sounds like Chinese whispers doesn't it?  Eventually they got it together and upstairs they went to assemble the puzzle.  

Around 2 Hans Van der Pol and his wife arrived and we all took a tour of the WPC.  Sadly, the tour takes around 3 to 4 hours and I didn't want to do it twice in one weekend.  Sorry for the wait guys.  While George finished the tour, I put lunch on the table.  As usual, it was just meats and cheeses.  A simple lunch.  

I decided to give poor George a break. Hence the paper plates.  Lucky man he is.

Once that was finished, the guys went upstairs and assembled the Notre Dame puzzle! It is perfect in that room.  

We opted for Gallo for dinner Saturday night and fun was had by all.  Sadly, Jan and his wife left early as they weren't feeling well.  

On Sunday, the mega mansion was finished and reassembled!  That is one heck of a puzzle.  Thank you Tracy!

The highlight of the weekend was watching Peter run up and down the stairs every 5 minutes to turn the light back on.  

He was enamored by the hall of tiny treasures and spent a great deal of time there.  The rest of the guys got to play with whatever they wished.  At times we sat around talking and at other times we just puzzled.  

Sunday lunch we ordered in torte de testa from Stephano's bar because I was just too lazy to cook them myself.  

There were plenty left over, and the guys took them for a dinner before their flight back home.  Steve took Allard, Ali, and Peter to the airport while the Zoon's and the Miller's headed to the opera.  It was wonderful as always.  When we returned, we had a light dinner of leftovers and spent more time chatting and puzzling.

Louis and Steve remained until Tuesday.  At some point, they finished unboxing the IPP room.  Lord knows what I was doing?  Not cooking.  I overheard them say I was feeding them too much.  Ok!  You didn't grow up with my grandmother.  Mangiare!  Mangiare! I felt as though I didn't feed you enough. But point taken. 

Jan and his lovely lady left Monday around noon.  I packed them a nice lunch for a picnic along the way.  It was lovely to have them down to help put the puzzle together.  It was a weekend we will never forget.  That evening I made a Berrocal dinner for the guys.  Simple food, great service.  

Tuesday morning we found a geocache in Panicale!  Who knew?  

Louis solved the puzzle door!

And after that, just more puzzling and more chat until Steve and Louis left for the airport on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a real treat to have them all here.  We look forward to the next visit.  

One last thing that really stuck in my mind.  Allard said something along the lines of "he was prepaired to be impressed, but his mind was blown".  And just think.  only 1/3 of the work is done.  We still have the great wall to build, 3 more rooms to shelve, and a lot of puzzles to unbox.  Just wait until next time sir!

On to Nuremberg

 The next morning saw us at Jan Zoon's home.  We were given a wonderful gift to add to the World Puzzle Center. He gave us his Notre Dame puzzle!  What wonderful generosity.  

It is a big puzzle, but thankfully, he put it into boxes and we managed to fit it into the van.  We should have thought better about how to put it in there, because we had boxes shifting from one side to the other while I drove.  (When we got to Nuremberg we repacked the car and tied down the boxes.)

They showed us the doll house they have been working on and another beautiful puzzle that he created.  We stayed for a bit, had a cup of tea and chatted about puzzles and other things before taking our leave.

From here we went to see our friends Oskar and José again.  This is a real treat for George to see them whenever we are in the area. Both of them have the same silly sense of humor.  It makes for a lot of laughs.  Around 1/2 hour after we arrived Peter and Fredi came over and we all sat and talked for a while.  Later that evening we went for Greek food which was great as always.  

Sadly we had to leave the next morning to get to Northern Germany where we met with Bruce Whitehall.  We have been in correspondence about some puzzle related things, and thought since we are here we should stop by and say hello.  We arrived around 3, had a wonderful apple cake with cream and a cup of tea.  And then we headed out to town.  We had dinner in a French place, I of corse ordered currywurst.  Over diner we had a very nice chat.

From here we went to the theatre where we saw a MET live presentation of Carmen.  Now I really enjoyed the music, but not the story.  I mean, I know the story, but this time it was changed into something more modern.  Arms factory, sports cars, and I'm not giving anything away when I tell you that Carmen gets killed in the end. But by a baseball bat?  I'll stick with the classics thank you.  

But the wine they served was good, we were introduced to the theatre because we came all the way from Italy to their little place to view the opera, and there was chocolate on the way out the door. I've never seen anything like it.  A very fun evening.  

Bruce showed us his home and a number of puzzles he had for sale, but sadly we declined to purchase as we have already everything he was selling. 

The next day we awoke and once again said our goodbyes shortly after breakfast.  We were headed to Bernhard Schweitzers home before finally arriving in Nuremberg. Along the way, George managed to solve a puzzle that he found. 

We've known Bernhard for years and had a really nice time looking at his collection and Kirsten's art works.  They have a lovely home filled with many interesting things.  Not just puzzles.  Kirsten made a very delicious dinner for us and an even more amazing set of cakes!  She's a very good cook.  

We truly enjoyed our short visit.  I even got to see a book or two that I now will have to hunt down.  

This is always one of the joys of meeting people. Finding things we don't have and having to find them later.  In Bernard's collection, I am sure there are many.  I just need to unbox before committing to any new purchases of old puzzles.  Kirsten showed us some of her beautiful paintings.  Sadly, the van is full. 

Bernhard took us to see his workshop.  We discovered that George has the same saw.  The sander I new need to look for.  

The next morning we left for Nuremberg.  Our reason for being here.  I was warned that there was lots of construction and That was an understatement.  Not a major problem, but man did I have a headache when we got to the hotel.  First stop: a pharmacy for some aspirin.  Then back to the room to relax before the next days fun begins. 

Again, I am saddened by the lack of snow.  I would have expected to have at least a foot of ground covering, but the best we found was some black leftover plow deposit that I crunched over.  I'm sure that it is gone today.  Such a sad state of affairs.